National Library of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin Collaborate in Unique Project, and jointly appoint Dr Catherine Morris as Cultural Coordinator
Posted on: 19 October 2010
The Director of the National Library of Ireland, Fiona Ross, and the Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr John Hegarty, announced the appointment of Dr Catherine Morris as National Library of Ireland/Trinity College Dublin Cultural Coordinator.
This joint appointment is the first of its kind in Ireland. As part of Trinity’s pioneering initiative in the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture (www.tcd.ie/catc) and the National Library’s Outreach and Education strategy, (http://www.nli.ie/) it marks a new level of partnership and structured engagement between an Irish university and a major cultural institution. Recognising the wealth of existing and potential links, expertise and collections, and their close proximity at the heart of Dublin city, the appointment signifies the commitment of both institutions to forging a dynamic new collaborative model of education, exhibition, practice and research in cultural heritage.
Dr Catherine Morris, National Library of Ireland/Trinity College Dublin Cultural Coordinator.
As the new NLI/TCD Cultural Coordinator, Dr Catherine Morris, will focus on exploring areas for long-term partnership that could bring real benefit to both institutions. This includes facilitating discussions around the already extensive collaborative-enabling infrastructures involving the National Library and the Trinity College Library, especially issues of shared cataloguing, digital content creation and delivery, shared storage and legal deposit. She will lead a pilot project which, focused on the National Library, will act as a test bed for developing the multiple ways in which Trinity can activate the cultural, educational and historic synergies that exist between it and other neighbouring cultural institutions.
Dr Morris will be part of Trinity’s Cultural Research Policy Group headed by leading cultural economist TCD Professor John O’Hagan, which earlier this year published Dr Johanna Archbold’s Creativity, the City and the University report, a case study of collaboration between Trinity and some nearby cultural institutions, including the National Library. This research group is based in the Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity’s institute for advanced research in the arts and humanities.
Commenting on the joint appointment, Director of the National Library of Ireland, Fiona Ross said: “Collaboration such as this offers huge potential in terms of enhanced efficiencies and service delivery for both Trinity College and the National Library. Long term, the National Library and Trinity plan to roll out the new Cultural Coordinator initiative as an exemplary model of how educational institutions can generate and sustain collaboration with cultural institutions, while simultaneously creating a new educationally-focused cultural environment.”
Welcoming the new development, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr John Hegarty said that it was part of a concerted strategy by Trinity to engage with Dublin city through its recently launched Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture Initiative. The initiative was about creating a new dynamic of engagement across the disciplines and between the College and the cultural and creative sector in the city: “There is enormous potential for new creativity by linking the university with the city and its institutions in a more porous way. This project is a very exciting step in that direction. The development of a structured educational programme of collaborations, events and projects between Trinity and the National Library of Ireland opens an imaginative new era of cultural dialogue that could have a lasting impact on Ireland’s future generations. It will also raise the understanding of tomorrow’s educators and leaders of the intrinsic national and global value of the arts and Irish culture.”
“This pilot project will act as a test bed for developing the multiple ways in which the College can activate the cultural, educational and historic synergies between Trinity and other neighbouring cultural institutions. While it currently involves Trinity College and the National Library only, the intention is that if it is successful, it could be extended by the Library to other third-level institutions, and by Trinity to other cultural institutions,” Dr Hegarty concluded.
Dr Catherine Morris, who has long-standing connections with the National Library of Ireland, both as a researcher and as a curator, studied Literature at Cambridge before completing her doctorate at the University of Aberdeen. She has taught in several universities, including Cambridge, Sheffield, Aberdeen and the Institute of Irish Studies in Belfast. She has also worked as a researcher on the prestigious Oxford University Press series The Letters of WB Yeats, and is currently a contributor to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, the Field Day Review and other Irish cultural journals. In 2008, she co-edited the James Connolly Special Issue of Interventions, an international post-colonial journal. Her forthcoming book on the career of Irish cultural and political activist, Alice Milligan (1866-1953), explores the range of community-building initiatives that made a vital yet frequently neglected contribution to the Irish Renaissance. As a postdoctoral researcher at University College Dublin, she was invited to guest curate the exhibition Discover: Alice Milligan and the Irish Revival. The exhibition will open at the National Library of Ireland in November 2010, and later will later go on show in cultural centres across Northern Ireland.